Welcome back to the Delco Baseball Now Newsletter, where we keep you up to date on everything going on in the Delco Baseball summer ball world.
As the summer runs on, we have fewer and fewer teams still competing, but the level of competition continues to grow as those teams go further.
The Delco League playoffs will begin next week, and we highly recommend getting out to a game. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll see Delco Baseball Now Vice President Ben Thorpe pitching for the Upper Darby Blue Sox as they look to go back-to-back.
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Delco League:
All season long, it appeared as if Wayne as going to be run away with the top seed.
They were undefeated across their first 14 games, but have struggled a bit down the stretch. That allowed the door to be open for Upper Darby to steal home field advantage, and they pounced.
I still run the website for Wayne, but I really don’t have a true dog in the fight here. I was on the 2021 Upper Darby team that won their first ever title so I have love for both teams.
We will be streaming the Delco League Finals on our YouTube channel, so I am just rooting for good baseball. We will have championship merch to give out on the field after the finals are over like we did for the Little League District 19 championship.
The last day of the regular season will be Sunday. I don’t know when exactly the playoffs will start, but they should give the teams a few days off at least to reset.
EDIT: Aston Valley’s GameChanger had originally said that Charlie Oschell went 4/4 for Drexel Hill, but it was Evan McCoach.
Senior Legion:
It was an unfortunate but understandable decision for UDHL and Narberth to not play the Senior Legion championship as teams didn’t want to burn all their pitching before the regional tournament.
We’ll see if that decision pays off as both teams are fully rested heading into the Region 3 Tournament at the best high school baseball field in Pennsylvania at Spring-Ford.
Stadium seats, lights, press box, it’s got it all. Both teams will get started today and the tournament will run through Tuesday.
Cal Ripken:
Nether-Swarthmore stayed hot from their Southeast State Championship run as they began regionals with a win over Allentown. The top three out of five teams advance to the knockout stage, so you’d think a win today would have them in that top three. They will play two more pool play games on Sunday.
The top seed from each pool gets a bye, so that would be lovely.
The championship game would be Monday at 11:30 AM.
MLB:
I don’t know how the MLB schedule makers landed on this, but the Phillies next seven series will be against American League teams.
Not the worst thing ever as if they lose, it’s not like the teams they are playing are gaining ground on them even more.
It feels pretty on brand that the Angels have no clue who is starting any of their three games this series yet. This is what you signed up for, Mike Trout!